Contralateral adrenal suppression on adrenocortical scintigraphy provides good evidence showing subclinical cortisol overproduction from unilateral adenomas

Abstract

Unilateral and/or predominant uptake on adrenocortical scintigraphy (ACS) may be related to autonomous cortisol overproduction in patients with subclinical Cushing’s syndrome (SCS). However, there is no information regarding whether increased tracer uptake on the tumor side or decreased uptake on the contralateral side on ACS is more greatly associated with inappropriate cortisol production. Therefore, we evaluated the relationship between quantitative ¹³¹I-6β-iodomethyl-norcholesterol (¹³¹I-NP-59) uptake in both adrenal glands and parameters of autonomic cortisol secretion and attempted to set a cut off for SCS detection. The study included 90 patients with unilateral adrenal adenoma who fulfilled strict criteria. The diagnosis of SCS was based on serum cortisol ≥3.0 μg/dL after 1-mg dexamethasone suppression test (DST) with at least 1 other hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis function abnormality. Twenty-two (27.7%) subjects were diagnosed with SCS. The uptake rate on the affected side in the SCS group was comparable to that in the non-functioning adenoma group. In contrast, the uptake rate on the contralateral side was lower and the laterality ratio significantly higher in the SCS group. The two ACS indices were correlated with serum cortisol levels after a 1-mg DST, but uptake on the tumor side was not. Tumor size was also important for the functional statuses of adrenal tumors and NP-59 imaging patterns. The best cut-off point for the laterality ratio to detect SCS was 3.07. These results clearly indicate that contralateral adrenal suppression in ACS is good evidence showing subclinical cortisol overproduction.